Former WWE Champion's very 'real' retirement impressed The Undertaker: "I think it was one of the greatest ever"
The Undertaker had huge praise for a former World Heavyweight Champion for cutting, what he called, one of the greatest in-ring promos in WWE history. Mark Henry had every fan on edge and crying when he announced his "retirement" back in 2013.
On a recent episode of the Six Feet Under podcast, one of the topics discussed was Henry's promo in 2013 wherein he faked his retirement to take out John Cena. It was recently back in the spotlight after AJ Styles had a similar angle with Cody Rhodes.
The Undertaker remembered the World Strongest Man's promo back then and has nothing but praise for his fellow WWE Hall of Famer.
"It was awesome. I was gonna bring that up too. I think it was one of the greatest in-ring promos ever because it did play with your emotions and then you know it was real. It was real but it was a swerve," Taker said. [0:38 - 0:51]
It was probably one of the greatest moments of Mark Henry's career. He was already at the twilight of his career and was dealing with injuries. He was also coming off his Hall of Pain run as World Heavyweight Champion.
Mark Henry reveals he was supposed to beat John Cena for the WWE Championship
Fans were upset when Mark Henry failed to beat John Cena for the WWE Championship following his legendary promo. However, it was seemingly not Vince McMahon's fault that Cena went over the World's Strongest Man. It was Henry's decision to turn down the title win.
"My body couldn't do it. When you're the main event guy and you hold the title, every night, you're going to do two walks, a promo, an in-ring, a main event style match, and then you go to the next town. You're on every show, every brand. I couldn't do it. I physically couldn't do it. It was not their fault. It was the fact that, 'No, I'm not doing it,'" Henry said on Busted Open Radio. (H/T Fightful)
Henry battled injuries for the rest of his career before officially retiring on April 27, 2018. He was also inducted into the Hall of Fame that same year.